Harry Potter and the Dreamer of Fears

Chapter 21 - The Dreamers of Legend

They all convened into the antechamber next to the Great Hall, which had been magically expanded to fill the whole faculty and compliment of Aurors who weren't on duty.  All the students had been immediately sent back to their Common Rooms, no questions asked and the figures or portraits guarding their Common Rooms were given strict instructions not to let one single student out, no matter what it unless it was an unstoppable emergency.

Only a skeleton crew of Aurors and just a smidge of teachers were left to guard the various corridors of Hogwarts as everyone was within the antechamber, chattering quietly among themselves over the recent event on the Quidditch fields.

Marion was even surprised to see Professor Trelawney among the throng of teachers, having known that the Divination teacher rarely came out of her seclusion and tended to stay away from people for the fear of reading their deaths or some unfortunate predicament.  The owl-eyed teacher stood in the back of the room, an indecisive look on her face.

Marion, herself, was standing near the mantle of the roaring fireplace, just watching everyone, as she really couldn't believe it herself.  Just over a week since the attack on Hogsmeade and now this...something to affect the Quidditch match.  Sure Gryffindor had won the match with Harry practically landing on top of the Snitch, and even Madame Hooch called it a fair game before everyone was evacuated back into the school and they were sent out to scour the area for any signs of the person who attacked...but they didn't find anyone.

"We suck," Figg suddenly spoke loudly, "we are the worst lot of Aurors for the protection of the school.  We should now just go shoot ourselves with Muggle guns and end everything.  Three attacks within the last three weeks and we never even knew.  I say we vote on different ways to kill ourselves before anymore attacks start..."

"Now, Arabella," Dumbledore warned, a bit kindly, "We couldn't have foreseen these attack to occur so rapidly.  I think that these attacks are only to keep us off guard.  Voldemort has not gotten stronger since his revival almost six months ago.  From the press, he has only sent out his own pawns to deal with terrorizing the wizarding and Muggle communities.

"All of you knew that during his first rise to power in the seventies and early eighties he, himself, went out to attack those who stood in his way.  With just his minions out doing his work, he has not grown strong yet.  But..." Dumbledore paused slightly, "he has also gained many allies."

"I thought that when Merlin created the Dreamers, they weren't supposed to ally themselves with any factions..." Avalon Tenew spoke up, a frown forming on her pretty Icelandic face.

"They weren't," Moody spoke up from his position at one of the high-backed chairs near the fireplace, a thoughtful expression on his disfigured face, his magical eye flipping around as it scanned the various people in the room.  "Originally, the Dreamers were supposed to be neutral, inflicting balance among the Muggles and wizards.  They were to only appear to Seers and Prophets, giving them either news worthy of praise or news worthy of a downfall.  But even back in Merlin's time, the Dreamers developed a hunger to join warring factions, each one seeking to expand their powers of influence...to have people either fear or have hope against the other faction."

"Wait, doesn't that mean that Morgana LeFaye was a Dreamer?" an Auror that Marion didn't really know too well spoke up from somewhere in the middle crowd.

"Yes," Professor Trelawney suddenly spoke up from the back of the room and everyone stared at the usually quiet and complacent Professor that rarely spoke and seemed very vain.  This was a complete surprise for Marion as she had known the Professor to only speak in riddles and was very reclusive, including during her years at Hogwarts.

"Headmaster, if I may?" Trelawney spoke stiffly, as if she wasn't really used to speaking to so many people who was staring at her.  Marion even noticed that McGonagall, usually in disdain about Trelawney, had an attentive and slightly respectable look on her sharp face.

Dumbledore nodded for her to continue and Marion raised an eyebrow.  It was rare for the Divination teacher to even be talking, much less be at this meeting.

"Originally, all the Dreamers, fear, hope, love, anger...any human emotion to be felt in Muggles and wizards alike, were created by Merlin and the forces of the ancient magic.  They were created to speak to prophets, seers, and people with the gift for divination.  Each Dreamer possessed a unique gift of its own, but all were wizards and witches.  The first Dreamer of Fears was Nimue, the Lady of the Lake.  Gifted with divination and a Seer, she led Merlin to his ultimate downfall as the Dreamer of Hopes.  Other Dreamers during this day and age were Queen Mab of the Faeries, the Dreamer of Jealousies; Frick the goblin, the Dreamer of Deceits and many more.  Though they died off eventually, it was between a war with the wizards of Merlin's age that the Dreamer of Fears and Hopes were the few Dreamers to survive.

"At any rate, though they were said not to side with factions, Merlin himself broke the rule and sided with Arthur Pendragon and created Camelot as the Dreamer of Hopes.  It was then that Nimue, unwilling to be the Dreamer of Fears anymore and willing to be the Dreamer of Deceits after the death of Frick the goblin, gave her powers to a witch, Morgana LeFaye.  Merlin, seeing his error of siding factions, bestowed his powers of divination into Arthur...but sadly, the Muggle-mortal King Arthur had no such luck with his new found powers and abused them by turning his quest for the Holy Grail and went to wage war with his bastard-son Mordred," Trelawney suddenly started as if realizing that she had been telling a story and quickly excused herself to stand in the shadows.

"Over the years, only two Dreamers have survived since the thirteen virtues and faults of humans that are embodied in Dreamers.  If the Dreamer of Fears is back then the Dreamer of Hopes must not be far away," Avalon concluded, her face a mask of neutrality.

"Yes...but whose side is the Dreamer of Fears on?  And...who is the Dreamer of Fears?" Dumbledore spoke softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear.  Marion frowned to herself and cast a sidelong glance at her brother who was standing next to the vacated portrait of Violet, an expression of concentration his face.  She knew that Marius loved the ancient history and was especially good at the Arthurian legend, no matter how much fact and myth was put together, she hoped that he could identify the Dreamer of Fears.

If the Dreamer of Fears was on Voldemort's side, then things were going to get ugly.  She just hoped it was the opposite.

The first feeling of returning to consciousness was the fact the Harry could feel his pulse pounding against his head like a sledgehammer.  The second thing was that someone was dabbing his head with a wet cloth.  He slowly opened his eyes as the light, however dim by candle or by sunlight, he couldn't tell, was making the pounding in his head throb even stronger.

"Harry Potter...is Harry Potter all right?" a small reedy voice spoke up as the dabbing continued.

Harry tilted his head slightly and squinted, as he could fuzzily make out the form of a scrawny creature with big round eyes and clothes that were mismatched.  "Dobby?" he croaked out then winced slightly as he tried to move his hand.

"Oh no...Harry Potter must not move hands...or any other body part.  Harry Potter has been hurt very bad.  'Tis Dobby's fault that he don't give Harry Potter proper care," Dobby whispered then there was a conking sound that was harsh to Harry's sensitive ears.  The sponging resumed and he managed to open his eyes further to see more of Dobby's fuzzy outline.

"Where am I?" he managed to get out as his throat was very dry and coughed slightly, which increased the pain to his head with each cough.

"You sir, in Hospital Wing.  Harry Potter and team-friends all in Hospital Wing.  'Tis bad omen of the events," Dobby replied.

"Can you...hand me my glasses?" he managed to get out through slightly painful swallows.  He felt as if he had screamed his throat raw then started slightly...he had screamed his throat out...during the Quidditch match.  Instead of handing him his glasses, Dobby slipped them on and everything came in focus.  He nodded gratefully at the house-elf's worried face, "Thank you..."

Harry took a deep breath then tried to prop himself on his elbows, ignoring the shooting pain his head was giving off and the protests his muscles were telling him not to inflict on them.  Managing to sit up, Harry released a breath he did not realize he was holding and gripped the railing just as a wave of dizziness rolled over him.

"Harry Potter...is all right?" Dobby asked, reaching for the wet towel he had been sponging his head with.

"Yes...I'm fine Dobby," he replied looking around.  Fourteen other beds beside his were occupied he noticed.  One side of the room of the Gryffindor team and what looked to be a gray mass of hair that was Madame Hooch.  The Slytherin team occupied the other side, and some he noticed had a crystal orb monitor that blinked steadily.  He also noticed that one of the beds on the Gryffindor side held the same orb, except this one was hooked up to other orbs and what looked to be a Muggle contraption of a re-breather.

Looking at the occupied bed with all the orbs on it, his breath hitched slightly as he noticed it was Alicia Spinnet, their Chaser, hooked up to all those machines.  What had happened on the Quidditch pitch to render everyone in the Hospital Wing...and...he noticed that none of the fans who were around the pitch were in the Wing, only the players and referee who was in the pitch...

"Dobby..."

"Yes, Harry Potter?"

"What happened during the Quidditch match?"

Marion was grateful that it was Sunday, and not Monday.  She was exhausted and literally running on adrenaline and she had been up all night after Dumbledore had ended the meeting.  Apparently, Moody called an Auror-only meeting, but let Marius in to listen because of his knowledge with the Arthurian legends and of the Dreamers.  She had vouched for both Lupin and Sirius since they weren't teachers or Aurors, but had resources like that of Aurors, they would also benefit from the meeting.  That meeting lasted until the morning hours, leaving Marion in a grouchy state.  She considered going to the Hospital Wing to check on the patients, but reconsidered the idea as Madam Pomfrey would probably chase her out...and chase anyone out at the moment.

She had seen the damage inflicted psychologically on both Slytherins and Gryffindors, and described by Marius...she knew what and how each and every player had been affected...except for Harry.

Based on the fact that the Dreamer of Fears' power was to use a psychological mind control, activating a person's deepest fears of that moment then turn it around and have their deepest fears come alive mentally in the victim's mind.  It was a brilliant tactic during the wizarding time of Merlin as many Muggles and wizard armies fell down just because their fears overwhelmed them.  At least that's what Marius told them.

And based on his sayings, it was true.  She had seen each player react differently.  The young Slytherin Seeker, Draco Malfoy, diving after Harry, yelling something about not letting him get the Snitch...it was obvious that Draco's deepest fear during that time was the fact of losing to Harry in the race for the Snitch, since both of them now owned Firebolts.

But one of the most frightening things she had ever seen, and this really scared her to the core, was Gryffindor's Trio of Chasers.  Each one of them looked as if they were hit by the three Unforgivable Curses...with Alicia Spinnet in grave danger as her heart had stopped.  Marion knew what Spinet's fear was.  The Killing Curse...and now, she was on life support as her mind had shut down, leaving her in a coma.  They didn't even know if she was going to survive...

"Marion," a voice called from the bottom of the stairs that she was walking on and she turned slightly to see Remus Lupin making his way up to her, a bit winded and out of breath.

"Remus," she greeted, not really in the mood to talk to anyone.  She just wanted to change into her falcon form and fly off to think or at least reach the Defense Against the Dark Arts room to rest for at least an hour before she would be going on patrol along with Kester Pointe and his little group.  "I'm in a little hurry..."

"Then I'll walk with you..." Lupin replied, and she shrugged, then continued her climb, but slowed down slightly so it wouldn't exhaust Lupin further.

"You ran?" she asked.

"From Hogsmeade..." Lupin smiled tiredly and Marion knew that the young, but graying man hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, like her, but still didn't seem irritable as she felt at the moment.

"You know..." she started lightly, but watched his reaction carefully, "there is a secret passage from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts that is much shorter.  I discovered it during last week's attack.  It goes from the Shrieking Shack to the Whomping Willow..."

"Oh..." Lupin's eyes widened with curiosity, "I didn't know about that."

Marion noted that Lupin seemed not to be too curious of the fact that there was a passage and the fact that was a possible security hazard to the safety of Hogwarts.  She raised an eyebrow, "You don't seem so surprised..."

"I am...it's just the fact that I cannot even fathom to think there is a passage by the Whomping Willow.  Do you know what that tree can do?  Who would put a passage in there?  I mean-"

Marion had opened the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and immediately froze upon entering it.  "Oh hell..."

"We...have a major...problem," Severus Snape managed to get out before he collapsed in front of the two of them...his face covered in blood, his robes tattered and showed signs of a recent battle.

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